The music video proposal is for the song "So Far (it's alright)" by the 1975. It will tell the story of a teenage girl crying in her bedroom after a breakup with her boyfriend, using flashbacks to show what led to this. Flashbacks will show them previously happy together and her boyfriend's drug use negatively impacting their relationship. Iconography and locations around Manchester will be incorporated to represent themes of love, drugs, and pain. The video will be shot in black and white to intensify emotion and the feeling that color is gone from her world.

1. By Georgia McLaughlin
Music video ideas generation report
Narrative and genre/style
Our music video is to the song ‘So Far (it’s alright)’ by indie pop/rock group the 1975. The
video is a combination of narrative and conceptual through narrative enigma and
fragmentation. This is done through the narrative as we show a teenage Girl crying in her
bedroom. In between this we have several flashbacks as to what has made her this way. The
first shows her happy with boyfriend. This creates a narrative enigma as it confuses the
audience as to why she would be crying. Following this is several flashbacks related to drug
use; in this case the main girl’s boyfriend is a frequent drug user and this breaks up the
relationship. In-between each flash back we will cut back to the girl crying in her room;
perhaps looking at specific iconic objects or performing another action whilst crying to
create a misperception and keep the viewer enthralled. The overall narrative will be linear
however we will add Visual fragmentation through the use of flash back. The end shot will
show the same girl crying in her bedroom however, at the end she looks in the mirror and
finally sees the physical effect of the relationship on her face as she is shown bruised.
Setting
The scenes showing the girl crying will be set in her bedroom, it will be styled in a way that it
will be instantly recognisable as a stereotypical teenager’s bedroom. We will also film in
Manchester City Centre to show the scenes between her and her boyfriend, this will also
add to the iconography; being iconic Manchester landmarks. We will also film some scenes
in the music/film store ‘Fopp’ to relate it back to teenage pop culture. We may also film in
media city and Eccles town centre to suggest the journey they have been on together and to
use some more locations that would stylistically fit the song and overall all video
themes/style.
Iconography
In terms of Iconography we will show some Manchester’s landmarks in an establishing shot
taken from the top of the big wheel and again in the various setting. We will show several
symbols and objects representing drugs, love and pain which are our main themes. A mirror
will be a key feature as it will reflect how she see’s feeling and how she is seen an/or viewed
by others as it shows what the relationship has done to her physically whereas every other
time she is shown in her room is it is only the emotional pain we see.
Characters
The characters we are planning to use is main female lead who has had her heartbroken.
She is seen crying in her bedroom and happy in the first flashback but getting increasingly
upset as the flashbacks go on. She will be portrayed as a typical popular teenager who is
usually happy but a tainted relationship has changed her persona. The second character will
be her boyfriend who starts the video the same as her; happy and devoted. However after
experimenting with drugs and becoming addicted, his persona also changes unfortunately

2. for the worst. The male lead will present in in flashbacks but won’t be there in the present
day yet the audience will be aware of his presence.
Technical and audio codes
We will use cross cuts between past and present and start the video with an establishing
shot of Manchester taken from the big wheel. We are debating using hand held camera to
make the audience become part of the story and make it feel more personal. But are
definite sure we will be editing the video to black and white as this intensifies the emotion
portrays and suggests all the colour is gone from her world. We will also use low key lighting
on the more upsetting moments and high key on the happy memories portrayed through
flashbacks
Steve Neale’s Mental Machinery
Steve Neale is a genre theorist who states that genre can be defined by instances of
repetition and difference and that genre is part of a process of “mental machinery” between
“industry, text and subject”. This applies to our music video idea in the following ways -
 Some of the similarities between our music video and stereotypical indie pop/rock music
videos include the use of black and white which is common for the 1975’s music videos.
It also conforms to the indie genre quite a lot in terms of the emotions that it portrays
and the themes that are featured (E.G. drugs and heartbreak).
 Some of the differences include the use of conceptual shots to provoke thoughts and
feeling and the possible occasional uses of colour. We will also use flashbacks which are
not conventional of this genre of music. This will also add to the depth of the narrative
which again is not a reoccurring style in indie pop/rock music videos.
By Georgia McLaughlin